'?r&^zZL    15^L^>^ 


>  i;   \   I  EON 


DELIVERED  ON  THE 


FOURTH  DAY  OF  JULY,  1861, 


AT   THE 


CAPITOL,  AUSTIN,  TEXAS. 


BY 


H  ON.    A.  W.    T  E  R  RELL, 


AUSTIN: 

TRIKTED    BY   JOHN   MARSHALL   &   CO.,  AT  4<  GAZETTE "  OFFICE 

1861. 


CORRESPONDENCE 


Austin,  July  5th,  1861. 
Hon.  A.  W.  Teerell  : 

The  undersigned  committee  respectfully 
request,  on  behalf  of  the  citizens  of  Travis  county,  a   copy  of 
your  eloquent  oration  delivered  on  yesterday,  for  publication. 
Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  serv'ts, 
N.  G-.  Shelley, 
Jno.  M.  Swisher, 
H.  H.  Haynie, 
C.  S.  West, 
F.  T.  DuFFAir, 
T.  D.  Moseley, 
Committee  of  Arrangements, 


Austin,  July  6th,  1861. 
To  Messrs.  N.  G.  Shelley,  Jno.  M.  Swisher,  et  als. 

Gentlemen  :  In  answer  to  your  communication,  of  the  5th  inst, 
I  transmit  my  address,  delivered  to  the  citizens  of  Travis  county. 
You  are  at  liberty  to  make  such  use  of  it  as  you  may  desire. 

Verv  Respectfully, 

a.  w.  teerell; 


O  R  ^L  T  T  0 1ST 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen — 

Every  people  who  in  the  providence  of  God  have  been  bl» 
with  the  enjoyment  of  freedom,  have  hailed  with  exultation  and 
Joy  the  annual  return  of  some  day  which  marked  a  bright  epoch 
in  their  history;  and  you,  the  mingled  sons  and  daughters  of 
many  States,  have  with  patriotic  zeal  come  forth  to  celebrate 
this,  the  birth-day  of  American  Independence. 

With  a  unanimity  of  purpose  and  a  glow  of  feeling,  such  as 
yuo  did  not,  and  could  not  feel  in  the  later  and  worse  days 
of  the  Republic,  you  have  assembled  to  do  honor  to  the  great 
♦  cause  of  Constitutional  Freedom;  to  hear  yet  once  moe  read  tie 
Declaration  of  Independence;  to  bow  down  before  the"  God  of 
a  free  people,  and  invoke  his  aid  in  their  behalf. 

As  the  sea  fareing  man,  who  for  many  days  has  been  tossed 
npon  a  dangerous  sea,  will  when  the  stars  shine  out,  take  his 
reckoning  to  see  whether  he  has  drifted  from  his  true  course,  so 
we  who  have  so  lately  journeyed  over  the  billows  of  political 
strife,  now  that  the  voice  of  dissension  is  no  longer  heard, 
should  e'er  we  wrestle  with  a  blacker  pterin,  makeonr  reckoning, 
to  see  whether  we  have  drifted  away  from  the  faith  bequeathed 
to  us  by  the  apostles  of  76.  Or  as  the  christian,  who  desires 
to  strengthen  his  faith,  daily  contemplates  the  pure  system  of 
morality  which  his  God  gave  him,  so  we,  though  we  may  not 
be  instructed,  may  strengthen  our  faith,  and  derive  profit  and 
encouragement  by  reviewing  the  history  of  the  declaration  which 
we  have  just  heard  read,  and  tracing  its  consequences  even  to 
the  present  hour. 

The  first  permanent  settlers  of  the  thirteen  colonies  sought 
an  asylum  in  the  new  world,  not  so  much  in  the  beginning,  for 
the  enjoyment  of  civil  as  religious  freedom.  The  persecuted 
Catholic  sought  the  shores  of  Maryland,  and  invited  the  Protes- 


'tan  t  to  come  and  enjoy  -with  i&hn,  liberty  of  conscience.  The 
brave  Huguenot,  driven  by  t'he  Eevocation  of  the  Edict  of 
IS  antes  irom  his  native  land,  found  an  asylum  on  the  shores  of 
South  Carolina;  the  grim  Puritan  in  a  more  northern  land,  and 
each  laid  broad  and  deep  in  the  solitudes  of  a  new  world,  the 
(foundations  of  their  future  power. 

It  pertains  not  to  the  present  occasion  to  detail  minutely  the 
iprivatioiis  which  each  colony  endured.,  and  the  persecutions  for 
conscience  sake,  which  were  both  endured  and  inflicted  by  the 
•people  of  New  England.  The  last  is  important  to  be 
remembered,  only  that  we  may  trace  thus  early  the  germ  of  that 
spirit  of  intolerance  which  has  since  culminated  so  fearfully. 
The  twenty-five  thousand  puritans,  who  during  the  first  ten 
years  of  the  settlement  of  Massachusetts,  found  there  a  refuge 
'from  the  persecutions  of  Charles,  had  scarcely  established 
•  themselves  in  their  new  home  ibefbre  they  began  the  w  ork  of 
intolerance  and  prescription  among  themselves.  Roger  Wil- 
liams and  bis  followers,  for  their  religious  faith,  were  banished 
to  the  wilderness;  the  Quakers  were  driven  forth  or  hung; 
Episcopal  emigrants  from  England  were  not  permitted  to  land 
and  establish  homes  among  them,  while  in  Connecticut,  none 
were  admitted  to  the  privileges  of  free  Tien,  for  many  years,  but 
such  as  were  members  ot  the  Puritan  church. 

Fir  different  was  the  spirit  of  toleration  which  marked  the 
early  settlement  of  Maryland,  Ehode  Island,  the  Carolihas  and 
Georgia.  The  Oatholic  and  Protestant,  the  Scotch  Presbyte- 
rian and  the  Cavalier  tolerated  in  others  that  freedom  of  con- 
science which  they  enjoyed  themselves,  and  invited  the  persecu- 
ted of  every  land  to  come  and  partake  with  them  of  its  benefits. 

For  nearly  two  hundred  years  the  early  colonists  of  America 
and  their  descendents,  with,  varied  vicissitudes  of  fortune  strug- 
gled with  the  hardships  of  the  wilderness.  Though  acknowl- 
edging their  allegiance  to  the  British  crown,  they  were  far 
removed  from  the  corrupting  influences  of  the  Court,  and  saw 
not  the  tinsel  ornaments  and  glittering  gewgaws  of  Eoyalty. 
They  learned  habits  of  self  reliance  in  the  school  of  stern  neces- 
sity and  derived  strength  from  their  conflicts  with  adversity. 
Secure  in  their  very  poverty  from  the  exactions  of  arbitrary 
power,  they  learned  to  prize  the  blessings  of  social  order,  regu- 
lated by  law;  and  thus,  while  the  nations  of  the  old  world  were 
contending  through  the  weary  lapse  of  ages  only  to  accomplish 
a  change  of  masters,  the  colonists  all  unconscious  of  their  high 
destiny,  were  silently  learning  the  lessons  of -civil  freedom. 


Nor  in  learning  those  lessons,  were  they  destitute  of  beacon 
lights  in  the  past,  furnished  by  their  own  proud  ancestry.  They 
remembered  that  the  sturdy  Barons  of  Runnymede  had  five  hun- 
dred years  before,  wrung  from  a  reluctant  king  the  concessions 
ol  Magna  Charta;  and  though  they  had  been  sometimes  almost 
forgotten  in  the  civil  wars  which  convulsed  the  British  isles, 
they  were  remembered  in  the  new  world  by  those  who  were  soon 
to  peril  all  in  their  defense.  They  remembered  that  there  were 
rights  pertaining  to  all  who  had  shown  capacity  for  self  govern- 
ment, higher  than  crowns  or  parchment  grants — inherent  and 
unalienable  rights,  which  pertained  to  the  intelligent  man,  by 
virtue  of  his  rank  in  the  creation.  And  the  time  came  when  the 
people,  in  the  strength  of  these  great  truths,  were  tn  rise,  even 
in  the  midst  of  peace,  plenty  and  prosperity,  and  vindicate  them 
in  an*  s  against  the  first  power  upon  earth. 

And  here,  my  fellow-citizens,  it  may  he  well  for  us  to  pause 
and  remind  ourselves  of  the  true  cause  for  which  that  memora- 
ble struggle  for  independence  was  begun.  On  the  6th  day  of 
February,  I76.>,  the  British  Parliament  passed  the  Stamp  act, 
which  provided  for  the  collection  oi  impost  duties  on  all  stamped 
paper  to  be  used  in  the  colonies.  The  tax  was  insignificant  and 
pecuniarily  would  not  be  felt,  but  the  right  which  was  claimed 
to  impose  it,  when  the  corresponding  right  to  representation  was 
denied,  roused  the  slumbering  spirit  of  the  Colonies  and  upon 
their  remonstrance,  it  was  promptly  repealed.  In  the  year  1767 
another  act  was  passed  by  Parliament,  imposing  duties  nj*on  all 
tea,  oaper,  glas*.  paints,  and  lead  that  should  be  imported  into 
the  Colonies.  Though  the  grievances  complained  of  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  all  had  an  existence  in  '76,  we  must 
not  forget  that  they  were  nearly  all  inflicted  after  active  prepa- 
rations for  war  had  been  begun  by  the,  Colonists.  The  passage 
of  the  tax  bill  and  the  effort  to  enforce  it,  backed  by  the  decla- 
ration of  thy  British  Government  that  the  right  existed  in  the 
mother  country  to  bind  the  Colonies  in  all  cases  whatsoever,  was 
the  cans:  ,  and  the  one  great  cause  which  prompted  resistence  to 
the  British  Crown.  Every  other  cause  set  forth  was  subordi- 
nate to  this,  and  few  others  had  an  existence  until  after  war  had 
begun. 

For  more  than  a  year  the  thunder  of  contending  armies  had 
been  heard  in  the  land,  when  the  delegates  from  the  thirteen 
Colonies,  calling  themselves  a  Congress,  met  together  in 
Convention  to  take  counsel  together  concerning  the  honor  and 
safety  of  their  native  land.  A  declaration  by  the  Colonies  of 
their  independence  was   about  to    be  published  to  the  world  by 


6 

fhe  first  statesmen  of  the  age.  The  connection  with  the  mother 
country  was  about  to  be  dissolved  by  the  once  feeble  colonies, 
who  now  proudly  aspired  to  the  position  of  sovereign  States. — • 
They  were  about  to  launch  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  the  people 
on  the  doubtful  sea  of  revolutionary  strife,  against  their  own 
kindred,  who  spoke  a  common  language,  and  gloried  in  the 
achievements  of  a  common  ancestry.  They  were  about  to  grap- 
ple with  the  prejudice  of  ages,  and  baptize  with  blood  their 
devotion  to  an  idea.  They  were  revolting  against  a  govern- 
ment, then  the  freest  and  proudest  upon  earth.  They  were  to 
contend  against  a  flag  which  they  had  often  followed  in  the  red 
path  of  battle.  In  four  wars  with  France,  the  triumphal  pro- 
gress of  the  British  flag,  over  this  continent,  could  be  trailed 
by  the  bleaching  bones  of  the  brave  colonists  who  had  followed 
it.  Only  fifteen  years  before,  thirty  thousand  of  them  had  sealed 
their  .devotion  to  the  British  crown  by  lying  down  in  their  last 
sleep  under  the  shadow  of  the  British  flag.  In  that  struggle, 
the  colonies  voluntiily  expended  fifteen  millions  of  money  to 
assist  the  mother  country  against  France.  Nor  was  this  all, 
they  were  contending  against  a  people  who  rejoiced  in  the  glo- 
ries of  a  British  Constitution,  and  that  Constitution  our  fathers 
of  '76  had  delighted  to  honor. 

Oh  !  my  countrymen,  the  dangers  of  the  tented  field,  the 
desolations  of  war  and  the  destruction  of  fortune,  moved  not  so 
deeply  the  springs  of  feeling  in  our  patriot  sires,  as  did  the 
clustering  memories "  of  their  own  past  history,  which  bound 
them  in  the  links  of  a  common  brotherhood  to  their  Briton 
fues. 

And  now  on  the  fourth  day  of  July,  1776,  the  delegates  from 
thirteen  colonies  are  about  to  publish  to  the  world  their  decla- 
ration of  independence.  They  are  about  to  claim  for  their 
respective  colonies  the  position  of  sovereign  States;  and  yet 
they  knew  that  all  the  world  beside  and  thousands  in  their 
midst  denied  to  them  every  attribute  of  sovereignty.  With  no 
bond  of  Union  but  a  common  hope,  a  common  danger  and  a 
common  destiny;  with  no  organized  government  to  provide  for 
their  safety;  without  money,  without  powder,  and  almost  with- 
out arms;  knowing  no  flag,  under  which  their  proud  hearts  had 
ever  burned  but  the  one  upon  which  they  were  about  to  war,  we 
can  all  see  how  desperate  must  have  been  the  hope  that  they 
would  make  that  declaration  good. 

Nor  was  this  all,  for  while  they  had  much  to  excite  their 
fear,  they  had  abundant  reason  to  hope  that  a  struggle  might 
be   avoided    by   delay.     They   knew   that  the  sympathies  of  a 


powerful  party  in  the  mother  country  were  with  them;  that  the 
elder  Pitt  and  the  gifted  Burke  weie  even  then  making  the 
hails  of  Parliament  resound  with  eloquent  vindications  of  their 
cause,  and  surely  they  were  not  without  reason  to  hope,  that 
under  the  lead  of  such  champions,  the  right  would  triumph,  that 
the  blind  advisers  of  the  crown  would  soon  be  hurled  from  power, 
and  the  protection  of  a  restored  Constitution  once  more  extend- 
ed over  then.  But  all  these  considerations  were  but  as  "  wafted 
dust  upon  the  balances"  when  they  remembered,  that  the  sword 
and  purse  of  Britain  were  controlled  even  tor  an  hour  by  those 
who  were  bent  on  violating  the  British  Constitution  to  their 
prejudice.  They  had  studied  too  well  the  history  of  the  past  to 
believe  that  the  grasp  of  tyrany  was  ever  relaxed  by  temporising 
expedients,  and  they  knew  that  the  spirit  of  a  people  was  already 
crushed  when  they  could  contemplate  in  silence  the  prospect  of 
their  degradation. 

Knowing  all  this,  they  no  longer  hesitated,  but  boldly  pub- 
lished to  the  world  their  declaration  that  the  13  colonies  "were 
and  of  right  ought  to  be  free,  sovereign  and  independent  States, 
and  for  the  support  of  that  declaration  with  a  firm  reliance  on 
the  protection  of  Divine  Providence,  they  mutually  pledged  to 
each  other,  their  lives,  their  fortunes  and  their  sacred  honor." 

We  may  search  the  pages  of  history  in  vain  for  the  consum- 
mation of  another  work  like  this.  It  was  the  advent  of  the 
politic  il  Shiloh,  whose  coming  had  been  expected  through  the 
ages  of  tyrany  and  darkness;  it  was  the  babe  in  the  manger, 
whilst  idolatry  was  upon  the  throne.  #  Then  was  proclaimed  to 
the  world  the  great  truth  that  all  government  derived  its  just 
powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed,  and  that  whenever 
any  form  of  government  became  destructive  of  the  unalienable 
rights  of  the  people,  it  was  their  right  to  alter  or  abolish  it,  and 
to  institute  new  government,  laying  its  foundation  on  such  prin- 
ciples and  organizing  its  powers  in  such  form  as  to  them,  the 
people,  should  seem  most  likely  to  effect  their  safety  and  hap- 
piness. Nor  is  this  the  only  great  lesson  which  was  taught, 
the  Congress  of  delegates,  bv  their  declaration,  published  it  to 
the  world  as  their  deliberate  judgment,  that  whenever  a  govern- 
ment evinced  a  design  to  reduce  the  people  to  the  sway  of  des- 
potism, it  was  not  only  their  right,  but  their  duty  to  throw  off 
such  government  and  provide  new  guards  for  their  future  safety. 
They  promulgated  no  Utopian  theory  of  freedom  as  alike  ap- 
plicable to  every  race,  whatever  its  condition  or  capacity;  but 
claimed  only  for  themselves  the  right  to  assume  among  the  na- 
tions of  the   earth  that  separate  and   equal   station    to   which 


8 

the  laws  of  nature  and  nature's  God  entitled  them.  They 
sought  not  to  make  white  that  which  God  had  created  black;  but 
charged  it  upon  Briton's  king  as  one  of  their  grievances,  that 
he  had  endeavored  to  incite  domestic  insurrection  among  their 
slaves.  They  did  not  advise  that  the  established  forms  of  gov- 
ernment should  be  blindly  worshiped  until  the  designs  of  des- 
potism weie  consummated,  and  that  then  the  people  should  strike 
to  regain  their  lost  independence;  they  taught  a  better  and  a  bolder 
doctrine.  They  taught  us  by  their  example,  that  whenever  the 
purpose  to  usurp  authority  was  avowed,  the  work  of  arming  for 
resistance  should  begin;  and  they  taught  by  their  declaration, 
that  whenever  the  designs  of  despotism  were  manifest,  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  people  to  form  a  new  government  to  secure  their 
happiness  and  safety.  Let  this  lesson  sink  to  day  yet  deeper 
into  the  southern  heart,  that  we  and  our  children  may  remem- 
ber never  to  wait  until  the  chains  of  d-.spotism  are  riveted  on 
our  unresisting  limbs,  but  strike  wheT  ever  power  evinces  the 
hostile  and  settled  purpose  to  accomplish  the  overthrow  of  our 
reserved  rights.  Is  it  urged  that  this  doctrine  is  the  parent  of 
Anarchy  ?  When,  let  me  ask,  would  Freedom  ever  have  gained 
one  triumph  if  her  votaries  had  listened  to  the  cry  that  anarchy 
would  follow  in  her  footsteps  ?  Why  is  it,  let  me  ask  you,. 
in  the  language  of  the  declaration,  all  experience  has  shown 
that  "men  are  more  disposed  to  sutler,  while  evils  are  sufferaole 
than  to  right  themselves  by  abolishing  established  forms  to  which 
they  are  accustomed?"  it  is  because  the  minions  of  Absolutism  have 
in  every  age  alarmed  their  distempered  fears  with  the  argument 
that  anarchy  would  follow  upon  that  effort  to  right  themselves. 
Here  it  will  be  well  for  us  not  to  forget  one  instructive  lesson 
in  the  history  of  the  past.  During  the  months  that  preceded 
the  declaration,  thousands  upon  thousands  of  pure  patriots  be- 
lieved that  the  time  for  action  had  not  come.  Dreading  the 
issue  of  a  revolutionary  experiment,  they  prefered  to  wait  and 
hope  for  a  reformation  of  evils  endured,  rather  than  fly  to  others 
that  they  knew  not  of.  But  when  the  sword  was  drawn,  and 
England  sent  her  squadrons  to  consumate  the  work  of  coercion, 
those  same  men  showed  that  their  caution  was  not  the  result  of 
craven  fear,  but  rushed  with  alacrity  to  the  front  of  danger,  and 
stood  side  by  side  with  those  who  had  precipitated  the  conflict. 
And  no  one  asked  in  the  day  of  trial  whether  his  comrade  was 
the  first  or  last  to  determine  on  resistance.  It  was  enough  that 
he  responded  to  his  country's  call,  and  stood  ready  to  seal,  if 
need  be,  with  his  blood,  the  cause  weich  his  prudence  had  once 
condemned. 


We  who  contemplate,  after  so  great  a  lapse  of  time,  the  his- 
tory of  that  memorable  struggle,  can  but  faintly  conceive  the 
danger  and  suffering — the  privation,  and  agonizing  disaster, 
which,  for  seven  long  years,  tortured  the  hopes  of  a  brave  peo- 
ple! But  they  had  chosen  one  for  their  leader,  the  bare  mention 
of  whose  name  still  awakens  those  emotions  in  the  heart  which 
constitute  his  most  fitting  eulogy.  Among  all  the  nations  of 
men  there  was  but  one  Washington,  and  none  other  like  him; 
and  from  the  bosom  of  the  Old  Dominion  he  issued  forth  to  lead 
the  people  in  the  people's  cause.  Alike  unmoved  by  the  praises 
of  the  world,  or  the  censures  of  his  own  countrymen,  he  moved 
calmly  forward  to  the  accomplishment  of  the  great  work  which 
Providence  had  assigned  him.  Whether  we  regard  him  after  a 
victorious  battle,  receiving  the  congratulations  of  a  whole  peo- 
ple, or  see  him  sustaining  the  censure  of  his  followers  for  the 
consummate  skill  which  would  not  peril  all  for  temporary  suc- 
cess—whether upon  his  bended  knees,  asking  aid  of  Heaven  or 
charging  at  the  head  of  a  shattered  column,  under  the  burning 
sun  of  Monmouth — whether  denounced  as  one  who  aspired  to  the 
dictatorship,  or  blessed  by  both  sexes  as  the  savior  of  his  coun- 
try, he  was  always  the  same  gifted  and  pure  man! — God's 
champion  in  the  van  of  Freedom! 

His  armies  were  worthy  of  their  leader.  They  were  animated 
with  the  same  stern  daring  that  animated  his  own  soul.  On 
them  he  leaned  for  support  with  steadfast  trust,  and  they  repaid 
his  confidence  with  a  devotion  that  never  faltered.  On  the 
heights  of  King's  Mountain,  on  the  blood-stained  snows  of 
Trenton,  in  the  trenches  of  Yorktown,  and  more  than  all,  when 
environed  by  the  gaunt  horrors  of  Valley  Forge,  our  fathers 
have  learned  us  how  to  struggle,  to  endure,  and  to  conquer. 

There  were,  indeed,  a  few  who  could  not  forget  that  they  had 
been  the  subjects  of  Britain;  that  they  had  rejoiced  in  her  glory, 
praised  the  freedom  of  her  laws,  and  followed  her  standaid  in 
days  that  had  gone.  Yielding  to  the  seductive  memories  of  the 
past,  they  tamely  crouched  before  the  minions  of  her  power; 
and  to-day  the  name  of  Tory  lives  only  in  the  "festering  infamy 
of  years."  But  the  spirit  of  those  who  resisted  remained  un- 
broken, and  they  illustrated  by  their  sacrifices  how  much  may 
be  endured  by  man,  when  he  protects  his  freedom  and  his  home. 

While  the  army  sustained  its  leader,  they,  in  turn,  were  en- 
couraged and  sustained  by  the  people.  No  speculating  vampire 
hounded  a  suffering  soldiery  to  fatten  from  their  necessities.  No 
Shylock  was  found,  in  the  ranks  of  freedom,  wrho  could  calmly 
weigh,  in  one  scale  the  value  of  Independence,  and  in  the  other 


10 

the  cost  of  establishing  it.  No  prophet  of  evil  repaired  to  the 
camp  to  croak  in  the  ears  of  1he  soldiery  the  raven  notes  of  his 
despair.  The  luxuries  of  life  were  abandoned  by  a  frugal  people; 
fashion  clothed  herself  in  homespun;  and  the  concentrated 
hopes,  and  prayers,  and  energies,  of  all,  were  given  to  the  great 
cause.     And  thus  it  triumphed. 

And  when  the  victory  had  been  gained,  the  voice  of  rejoicing 
went  up  from  the  glad  hearts  of  a  redeemed  people.  All  the 
privatim,  the  suffering,  the  desolation,  and  disasters  of  the 
past  were  forgotten,  in  the  great  joy  of  that  hour.  The  once 
feeble  colonies,  each  of  which  had  been,  by  name,  recognized  by 
Great  Britain  as  a  sovereign  and  independent  State,  now  stood 
proudly  forth  to  claim  their  rank  among  the  sisterhood  of  na- 
tions. 

But  a  great  work  was  yet  before  them.  Warned  by  all  past 
experience,  that  distracting  jealousy,  and  fierce  contention,  had 
worked  the  overthrow  of  all  petty  neighboring  republics,  it  was 
determined  that  the  States  should  be  more  perfectly  united,  "to 
establish  justice,  ensure  domestic  tranquility,  provide  for  the 
common  defence,  and  promote  the  general  welfare  of  them  all." 
For  the  accomplishment  of  these  great  ends,  giant  intel- 
lects labored;  and  if  we,  their  descendants,  must  now  fail  to 
enjoy  the  fruition  of  their  hopes,  it  is  from  no  inherent  defect  in 
the  system  of  government  which  they  left  us,  but  from  the  dark 
and  damning  fanaticism  of  those  who  were  to  be,  equally  with 
ourselves,  its  beneficiaries. 

In  tracing  the  consequences  of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, ere  we  glance  at  those  events  now  uppermost  in  the 
minds  of  all,  let  us  bestow  a  passing  thought  on  the  early  splen- 
dors of  the  Union  that  has  passed;  let  us  remember  it  to  love 
it  only  as  it  was  when  it  came  from  the  hands  of  its  architects, 
ere  the  withering  influence  of  a  false  philosophy  had  blasted  the 
growth  of  its  branching  promises  to  man. 

We  viewed  the  Union  as  our  fathers  viewed  it:  not  as  an  idol 
set  up  for  men  to  woiship  and  adore,  but  as  the  legitimate  off- 
spring of  a  written  Constitution,  which  spoke  it  into  being;  as 
the  creature  of  an  organic  law  which  created  the  government, 
and  limied  its  p  >wers,  and  upon  which  the  people  and  the 
ruler  should  alike  look  as  the  pillar  of  fire  to  guide  them  in  their 
wanderings. 

Upon  that  Constitution  the  eyes  of  all  were  fixed  with  admi- 
ration and  bouyant  hope.  To  it  the  descendant  of  the  grim 
Puritan  and  the  Cavalier  looked  with  a  common  faith;  and  he 
who,  with  his  rifle  in  his  hand,  standing  upon  the  summit  of  the 


11 

Blue  Ridge,  had  been  gazing  westward  and  southward,  caught 
the  inspiration  of  the  hour,  and  bore  with  him  into  unpeopled 
solitudes,  that  spiiit  of  freedom,  regulated  and  controlled  by- 
constitutional  law,  which  is  this  <ay  warming  the  hearts  and 
nerving  the  arms  of  his  posterity. 

The  Constitution  and  the  Union, — one  the  parent,  the  other 
the  offspring — one  the  written  will  of  sovereign  States,  the  other 
the  garment  in  which  their  joint  power  clothed  itself, — these 
were  the  strong  motors  to  the  wheels  of  progress.  Who  has 
not  felt  his  heart  bound  with  joy  when  he  contemplated  the 
early  achievements  of  that  Government,  while  yet  the  Constitu- 
tion was  reverenced  and  obeyed  by  those  who  controlled  her 
destinies!  The  wilderness  bowed  down  before  the  energy  of  her 
pioneers;  the  nations  clothed  themselves  with  the  productions  of 
her  soil:  and  whilst  the  shadow  of  her  power  rested  upon  dis- 
tant lands,  the  citizen  of  every  State  could  stand  erect,  with  the 
pride  of  conscious  freedom,  when  he  remembered  that  the  Gov- 
ernment was  his — that  it  was  not  his  master,  but  his  servant: 
that  he  and  his  peers  had  made  it,  without  exhausting  their 
power,  and  that  they  could  unmake  it,  if  ever  it  should  cease  to 
protect  either  their  lives,  their  liberty,  or  their  property,  against 
foreign  or  domestic  violence. 

With  that  spiiit  animating  the  people,  the  march  of  progress 
was  unexampled.  The  States  warred  not  among  themselves, 
but  leaned  against  each  other  for  support  against  the  banded 
nations;  whilst,  under  the  protecting  iEgis  of  a  Federal  Consti- 
tution, the  oppressed  children  of  earth  everywhere  hastened  to 
find  rest,  and  strength,  and  safety.  This  was  a  spectacle  on 
which  an  assembled  universe  might  have  gazed  with  the  silent 
rapture  of  a  great  joy. 

There  Science,  wandering,  found  her  cho  en  scat, 
And  spread  her  store  of  blessings  at  tin  ir  feet ; 
Wheeled  their  broad  commerce  o'er  each  distant  deep — 
Even  sent  their  thoughts  upon  the  Lightning's  leap: 
Traversed  their  Union  with  her  iron  hands. 
And  helped  them  labor  with  her  thousand  hands; 
With  Art,  her  sister,  walked  through  every  State, 
To  help  them  prosper,  and  to  make  them  great. 

We  love  to  remember  the  early  glories  of  the  Union  that  has 
gone,  because  we  love  the  principles  of  regulated  freedom  which 
created  it.  We  love  to  rejoice  over  its  earlier,  and  better  days, 
because  to  our  fathers  it  was  the  shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  the 
desert;  and  we  even  clung  to  its  lifeless  form  long  after  its  vital 
spirit  had  departed,  and  when  it  promised  us  nothing — nothing, 


12 

in  the  approaching  future,  but  the  vertical  rays  of  a  sectional 
tyranny  worse  than  death. 

The  glories  of  that  Union  have  long  since  departed.  The 
bloom  of  youth  was  yet  upon  her  cheek,  and  the  strength  of  a 
giant  manhood  in  her  arms,  when  the  fingers  of  intolerance  and 
fanaticism  were  silently  loosening  the  chords  of  her  existence. 

The  fell  spirit  which  drove  Roger  Williams  to  the  wilderness, 
which  denied  a  laiiding  to  the  churchman  of  England,  and  which 
burned  women  for  witches  at  the  stake,  had  not  died,  but  slept. 
It  would  sometimes  rouse  from  its  restless  slumber,  to  mutter  its- 
edicts  in  favor  of  Millerism;  to  explain  the  mysteries  of  free 
love;  to  make  strong-minded  women  unsex  themselves;  to 
astound  its  followers  with  the  wonders  of  clairvoyance,  or  start 
spirits  to  rapping,  and  writing,  for  their  instruction:  but  its 
greatest  achievement  was  reserved  for  the  hour  of  its  awakening, 
when.it  should  come,  refreshed  from  its  slumber,  to  make  Infi- 
delity and  Religion  shake  hands  over  a  desecrated  Constitution, 
and  a  broken  Union. 

For  thirty  years,  a  feeling  of  jealousy  and  hatred  had  been 
intensifying  between  ourselves  and  those  who  dwell  by  the  shores 
of  New  England,  and  their  descendants  who  had  immigrated 
along  the  frozen  lakes.  For  thirty  years  the  halls  of  a  common 
congress  had  echoed  to  the  fierce  defiance  of  the  sections.  A 
Government  of  co-equal  and  independent  States  contained  dis- 
tinct types  of  civilization,  clearly  marked  by  a  geographical  line 
traversing  their  center.  South  of  that  line  the  States,  impelled 
by  the  laws  of  climate  and  production,  found  that  they  had 
solved  the  great  problem  which  the  statesmen  of  Europe  had 
essayed  in  vain,  and  that  capital  and  labor  harmonised  in  their 
borders.  North  of  that  line  a  morality,  higher  than  that  of  the 
Bible,  was  taught  alike  by  the  preacher  and  the  infidel;  and  the 
disciple  of  Him  who  had  exhorted  slaves  to  the  duty  of  obedi- 
ence, clasped,  in  the  bonds  of  "  equality  and  fraternity,"  the 
prowling  thief  who,  in  the  name  of  "liberty,"  had  stolen  the 
property  of  his  southern  neighbor.  A  law  higher  than  the  Con-* 
stitution,  yet  conflicting  with  it,  was  promulgated,  and  that 
great  charter  of  our  rignts  was  denounced  as  "  a  league  with 
hell,  and  a  covenant  with  death." 

The  power  of  the  north  bowed  down  befi  re  this  new  philo- 
sophy, and  her  States,  at  its  command,  nullified  and  spurned, 
the  laws  which  the  Constitution  had  commanded  for  our  protec- 
tion. 

It  was  not  enough  that  they  were  permitted,  unmolested,  to 
strain  the  overworked   sinews   of  the   fair-haired  maid  and  the 


IS 

helpless  age  of  their  own  kindred,  amid  the  ceaseless  hum  of 
their  Vast  factories;  it  was  not  enough  that  they  were  permitted, 
'without  hindrance,  to  doom  to  endless  poverty  the  suffering  mil- 
lions of  their  owu  race  under  the  crushing  power  of  concen- 
trated capital:  they  longed  for  more  extended  fields  of  usefulness. 
They  looked  away  to  the  regions  of  the  South,  and  beheld  their 
brethren  sunk  in  moral  depravity  and  mental  blindness,  and 
they  aspired  to  a  guardianship  over  the  morality  of  fifteen 
States;  to  prescribe  the  conditions  of  their  safety,  and  determine 
the  laws  of  their  expansion. 

It  was  not  enough  that  their  commerce  was  sustained  by  the 
products  of  our  soil,  their  enterprise  enriched  by  the  collection  of 
revenue  Under  partial  laws,  and  that  we,  with  a  spirit  of  forbear- 
ance unknown  in  the  history  of  man.  had,  for  long  years,  en- 
dured their  hatred  and  their  taunts;  the  Sharp's  rifle  must  be 
sent  to  drive  us  from  the  common  property,  and  sanctimonious 
villains  come  around  our  hearth-stones  to  incite  to  the  butchery 
of  our  women  and  children. 

A  conflict  had  begun  between  the  moral  forces,  and  their  great 
leader  had  told  us  that  it  should  be  "  irrepressible;"  that  they 
had  driven  us  from  the  Territories,  aud  that  they  would  soon 
invade  us  in  the  States,  unless  we  yielded  to  their  demands,  and 
secured  equality  to  our  slaves.  A  sectional  President  must  be 
•elected,  whose  great  recommendation  was,  that  he  had  announced 
his  hatred  for  our  institutions. 

Representation  was  indeed  to  be  allowed  us,  but  it  was  to  be 
the  representation  of  the  minority  against  a  hostile  majority, — 
the  representation  of  the  weak,  in  tha  hostile  camp  of  the  strong, 
— upon  a  question  that  had  been  prejudged  against  us.  which 
involved,  directly,  our  right  to  regulate  onr  local  affairs,  and, 
indirectly,  fifteen  hundred  millions  worth  of  property. 

In  vain  the  Constitution  was  invoked  to  protect  the  reserved 
rights  of  the  States  and  the  people:  that  was  the  "covenant  with 
death ."  The  Union — the  Union,  had  become  their  only  idol:  the 
child  had  strangled  its  parent;  the  garment  was  worshipped  for 
the  God.  In  vain  we  pointed  to  a  Supreme  Court,  the  highest 
tribunal  upon  earth,  its  Chief  Justice  the  chosen  friend  of.  Jack- 
son, and  venerable  from  age,  and  implored  them  to  spare  us  the 
degradation  of  being  ruled  over  by  a  President  who  would  dis- 
regard their  decision,  already  pronounced  in  our  favor.  All,  all 
was  in  vain!  The  designs  of  sectional  despotism  were  manifest. 
We  knew  that  the  same  sectional  spirit  which  could,  in  Novem- 
ber, elect  its  President,  could,  in  Jane,  hurl  its  armed  mercena- 
ries on  the  soil  of  Missouri,  to  butcher  her  citizens  if  she  trusted 


14 

to  its  clemency.  We  knew  that  the  same  States  that  cauld  vio- 
late the  Constitution  by  extending  liberty  to  our  escaped  slaves, 
could,  in  June,  force  their  President  to  spurn  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus*  when  issued  by  the  Chief  Justice  for  the  benefit  of  a 
white  man,  and  a  Marylander,  in  chains. 

All  experiences  had  taught  us  that  the  approaches  of  sec- 
tionan  aggression  were  gradual;  that  it  concealed  its  hand  of 
iron  in  a  glove  of  velvet,  whilst  its  footsteps  werp  upon  prece- 
denfc  of  its  own  making.  The  lessons  of  the  past  were  not 
forgotten;  the  language  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  , 
not  been  left  us  in  vain;  we  remembered  that  wherfever  a  Gov- 
ernment ceased  to  answer  the  ends  for  which  it  was  made,  it  was 
not  only  the  right  but  the  duty  of  the  people  to  "  establish  new 
Government,  laying  its  foundations  on  such  principles,  and  or- 
ganizing its  powers  in  such  form  as  to  them  should  seem  most 
likely  to  effect  their  happiness  and  safety." 

We  have  established  new  guards  for  our  future  safety  by 
separating  from  those  who  sought  to  use  the  powers  of  Gov- 
ernment for  our  destruction.  We  have  asserted  our  independ- 
ence of  the  old  Union  for  causes  before  the  magnitude  of  which 
the  collection  of  a  tax  on  tea  dwindles  into  insignificance.  Who 
can  charge  upon  the  South  that  she  was  ever  untrue  to  the  Con- 
stitution or  the  Union  under  it,  so  long  as  her  equal  rights 
were  observed  and  respected.  Upon  many  a  bloody  field, 
wherever  the  sleet  of  battle  had  thickest  fallen, — wherever  the 
red  harvest  of  war's  sleepers  was  thickest  strewn,  than  her  chiv- 
alry had  charged  in  upholding  the  honor  of  the  flag  they 
loved.  But,  ay,  but  even  as  the  young  Washington,  who  upon 
the  bloody  field  of  Monongahela  charged  again,  and  yet  again, 
to  redeem  the  wavering  standard  of  Britain's  royalty,  received 
from  Freedom's  hand  another  flag,  when  the  old  one  flaunted 
over  the  hosts  of  coercion,  even  so  the  men  of  the  South,  now 
that  their  once  loved  banner  is  borne  by  an  invading  foe,  will 
baptize  in  the  smoke  of  battle  another  flag  which  shall  be  the 
true  emblem  of  their  equal  rights. 

We  are  to-day  engaged  in  the  second  Avar  for  independence, 
resisting  the  demands  of  centralization,  fighting  battles  tor  self- 
g  verrmient,  and  upholding  the  cause  of  constitutional  freedom. 
Old  men  have  long  told  us  that  the  hour  of  our  trial  would  come. 
The  first  shriek  of  fanatieisrn  over  the  admission  of  Missouri 
fell  upon  the  startled  ear  of  the  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Im- 
pendence, like  the  alarm  of  a  fire-bell  in  the  watches  of  the  night. 
Let  us  then  eease  to  wonder  that  the  army  of  the  Crusa  er 
Many  a  red  Peter  has  for  years  preached  that  the 


15 


Lamb  of  Peace  must  be   worshipped  in    blood,  and  taught  the 
multitude   in  the  name  of  God  to  war  upon  his  providence  in 
destroying  the  social  relations  He  has  established.     In  resisting 
this  crusade,    we   are  yielding  to   a    God-given  impulse,  which 
he  lodged  in  the  breast  of  man  when  He  made  him,  and  which 
prompts  even  the  worm  to  turn  and  sting  the  foot  that  spurns  it. 
You,  who  are  about  to  devote  yourselves  first  to  the  service  of 
your  country,  will  be  nerved  and  animated  by  the  reflection  that 
you  ar-  not  fighting  for  the  shadowy  and  unsubstantial  phan- 
toms of  the  past,  but  to  preserve  your  high  estate  in  the  living 
present     That   you,  are   not    periling   your   lives  in  behalf  of 
usurpation,  infidelity  and  sectional  tyranny,  but  for  your  country 
home  and    civilization.     Remember   that   the  hopes  and  bless- 
ings of  gentle    woman   will  attend  ycu  ;  that  the  hour  of  your 
danger  will  be  the  hour  of  her  pale,  proud  agony,  when  she  will 
clasp  her   tender  nestling  to  her  bosom,  and  shuddering,   think 
upon  her  docm  if youi  footsteps  should  turn  backward  inthe  strife 
You  upon  whom  at  home  will   rest  the  responsibility  of  pre- 
serving a  sound  public  sentiment,  have  a  fearful  trust,  for  which 
God  and  posterity  will  judge  you.     Let  the  language  of  crimi- 
mmation  and  recrimination  cease  in  our  midst;  let  the  devil  of 
party  strife    be  bin  ied  under  our  feet  with   his  face   downwards. 
Count  him  a  bad  adviser  who  will  tell  you  that  past  opinion  shall  be' 
the  measure  of  present  patriotism,  and  take  by  the  hand  as  a  brother 
and  a  friend,  evon  as  your  grandsiies  did,  all  who  will  stand  by 
their  country  in  the  hour  of  her  peril,  and  defend  the  soil  that  feeds 
them.  Let  us  remember   to  preserve  the  military  subordinate  to 
the  civil  power,  and  cherish  a  reverential  regard  for  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  law.     Shall  we,   who  cast  oft  the  tyranny  of  higher- 
lavvism  at  the  North,  bow  down  before  the  grim  Moloch,  when 
he  stalks  upon  our  ownsoil?  The  written  law,  made  by  ourselves, 
must  be  the   power    before    which    we    bend;  if  that  be  over- 
thrown, then,  indeed,  would  Anarchy,    with    her  serpent  brood 
come  among  us,  from  whom  would  spring  absolutism,  to  estab- 
lish order  at  the   expense  of  freedom.     I  urge  you,  as  I  have 
ever  done,  to  suspend  the  hand  of  violent   in  our  midst,  except 
when  it  strikes  at  the  command  of  the  law,  or    in  the  sacred 
cause  of  self  defence.     Spurn  with  contempt  that  bastard  states- 
manship which  would  persuade  you  that  a  stronger  government 
can  alone  secure   stability.     The   centralization    of  power   was 
advocated  by  many    who  framed    the   old  Constitution  ;  their 
proselytes   have     existed     in    every    subsequent   stage    of    our 
progress,    and  should   now  be  watched  with  sleepless  vigilance, 
If  they  have  lately  been   more  bold   than  before,  it  is  because 


16 

their  hopes  were  excited  hy  sudden  and  convulsive  changes; 
lout  if  they  have  failed  to  make  proselytes  among  the  peo- 
ple, it  should  cheer  us  with  the  assurance  of  their  weakness. 
The  fossil  demagogues  who  haunt  the  scenes  of  their  former 
.power  to  slander  and  defame  all  who  M  this  crisis  will  discharge 
their  duty,  may  indeed  think  their  advancement  can  be  secured 
•only  by  some  other  medium  than  the  elective  franchise,  and 
may  already  be  desiring  and  predicting  the  establishment  of  a 
stronger  government;  but  the  hopes  of  a  glorious  future  depend 
not  on  them  or  their  sycophants,  but  upon  the  bone  and  sinew 
of  this  land,  wno  dwell  on  your  prairies  and  in  your  valleys,  who 
•are  devoted  to  the  cause  of  free  government,  and  will  be  for 
ever. 

We  have  not  destroyed,  but  have  shown  our  ability  to  pie- 
serve  republican  institutions.  As  a  chastened  people  in  olden 
time  carried  with  them  through  strange  afflictions  the  Ark  of 
the  Covenant,  so  we  have  clung  through  every  trial  to  the  Con- 
stitution of  our  country;  and  when  we  departed  fom  those  who 
for  this  faith  persecuted  us,  we  brought  it  with  us  as  the  ark  of 
our  safety,  and  are  to-day  struggling  as  a  people  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  all  that  it  secures. 

If  the  spirit  of  all  shall  be  crushed  by  submitting  to  the  exac- 
tions of  arbitrary  power,  under  the  forms  of  violated  law — if 
these  States  now  contending  ior  the  right  of  self  government, 
shall  be  overborne  and  stricken  down  by  invading  foes,  then  in- 
deed will  absolutism  gain  a  triumph  in  our  midst.  And 
is  any  one  so  blind  as  now  to  hope  that  either  submission 
or  conquest  would  not  be  followed  by  the  destruction  of 
-every  right  that  the  freemen  values?  How  could  the  conquered 
States  be  governed,  except  by  a  powerful  standing  army  quar- 
tered  among  the  people  ?  How  could  they  expect  either  justice 
«or  protection  from  a  people  who  had  conquered  and  subdued 
them?  how  look  for  equality  of  right  from  those  whose  hate 
"would  be  inflamed  by  conflicts  and  carnage?  Despotism— 
the  despotism  of  military  force,  the  worst  of  all,  would  be  our 
fate.  Who  would  desire  to  restore  the  Government  of 
the  past  with  a  fate  like  that  before  him?  As  well  might 
you  expect  the  first  estate  of  bliss  in  Heaven  would  return  by 
restoring  Lucifer  and  his  fallen  hosts,  all  hot  and  smoking 
from  the  lowest  deep,  with  their  sins  unrepented,  as  to  expect 
that  a  reconstruction  of  the  past  would  bring  either  peace,  safety 
or  happiness  to  the  South.  Your  Senators,  no  longer  erect  with 
the  proud  consciousness  that  they  spoke  for  the  sovereignty  of 
States,  would  bow  their  heads  before  their  Northern  conquerors^ 


17 

and  supplicate  for  every  crumb  of  favor  that  the  hand  of  power 
would  grant — your  women  looking  around  for  their  neighbors 
among  enfranchized  slaves,  would  scorn  you  for  degrading  them 
and  their  children  to  negro  equality;  your  sons  growing  tc 
man's  estate,  deprived  ot  the  elective  franchise,  would  cower 
before  their  conquerors  with  the  craven  soul  of  the  provincial  sub- 
ject With  State  rights  shipwrecked,  and  northern,  official* 
lording  it  over  you,  under  laws  suited  to  territorial  vassalage,  your 
folly  would  only  be  equalled  by  your  infamy.  No  gloomy  pro- 
phet of  the  present  could  then  take  comfort  over  the  dark  fulfill- 
ment of  his  predictions,  but  upon  all  would  rest  the  shadow  of 
disgrace  and  the  mark  of  the  serf.  The  heart  sickens  and  revolts 
at  the  disgusting  picture. 

But  a  brighter,  a  more  glorious  destiny  awaits  us;  it  will 
oome  through  carnage — it  may  come  after  the  fires  of  desolation 
have  swept  the  land — but  it  will  surely  come.  I  predict  not 
to  that  cold  being,  with  soul  all  rusted  and  shrivelled  by  devot- 
ing six  days  and  a  half  to  his  great  god  Dollar,  half  of  a  day  to 
his  Christ,  and  no  hour  to  his  country,  but  I  speak  to  th«  living 
and  glowing  spirit  of  the  South,  which  is  to-day  bristling  the  land 
with  its  crop  of  armed  men.  The  clay  of  our  deliverance  and 
triumph  will  surely  come. 

Already  the  Old  Dominion  stands  like  a  grim  lioness  at  Lay  in 
the  gaps  of  the  Alleghanies,  guarding  her  progeny  of  the  South, 
and  as  often  as  her  cry  shall  come  to  us  for  help,  it  v/ill  go,  in 
long  and  living  waves,  crested  with  glittering  steel.  It  may  be 
that,  overborne  for  a  time,  her  sons  may  fall  back  for  increased 
strength,  but  the  cause  of  God,  Civilization  $nd  Country  must 
at  last  triumph,  and  the  wave  of  conquest  flow  back  to  cover 
again  the  loved  old  land  consecrated  to  Freedom. 

In  view  of  all  the  lessons  of  the  past,  and  the  issues  of  the 
present,  we  may  reassure  ourselves  with  the  conviction  that  we 
have  not  departed  from  the  faith  bequeathed  to  us  by  the  men 
of  Seventy-Six.  Constitutional  liberty  expelled  from  most  Gov- 
ernments upon  earth,  finds  now  her  abiding  place  among  the 
Confederate  States  of  America,  and  so  long  as  they  are  true  to 
the  principles  that  now  govern  and  control  them,  so  long  will 
the  fourth  day  of  July  be  held  in  grateful  remembrance. 


